Development and deployment of FIDO Authentication solutions bring myriad benefits to IT vendors, enterprises, service providers and the industry at large, including:

Stronger account/transaction security – This results in lower loss rates and fewer problems to mitigate, and will bring the possibility of improved customer loyalty and less churn. Improved authentication will also reduce risk and enable new business models and revenue streams.

Improved user experience – The FIDO solution enables businesses to improve convenience for both customers and employees. As users no longer need to remember complex passwords, user provisioning is therefore simplified and the cost associated with remote password resets will be drastically reduced.

Improved return of investment in authentication – The costs associated with the deployment and support of new solutions will be significantly reduced in comparison to current proprietary approaches which connect a single device type to a single application. System management functionality will be provided by the FIDO infrastructure, rather than having to be built by each application developer. Less testing will be required, as all devices just need to plug into the FIDO interface, and the time to introduce new technologies is significantly reduced.

Reduced risk of fraud – Users of all FIDO-enabled websites and cloud or mobile applications will enjoy a reduced risk of identity fraud, with the convenience of having less reliance upon passwords. Trust in online systems will grow again as a result of consistent user experiences and higher security.

The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization nominally formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication devices as well as the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The FIDO Alliance is changing the nature of authentication by developing specifications that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that supplant reliance on passwords to securely authenticate users of online services. This new standard for security devices and browser plugins allows any website or cloud application to interface with a broad variety of existing and future FIDO Certified devices that users can leverage for enhanced online security.